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Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the average daily cost has been $7.5 million. He said it began at a much lower rate in June and escalated after the airstrikes in northern Iraq began this month. After he spoke, the U.S. Central Command announced four additional airstrikes, bringing the total since they began on Aug. 8 to 110. Central Command said Friday's missions by U.S. fighter and attack aircraft destroyed four armed vehicles and three support vehicles in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam. One armed vehicle was damaged, it said without providing more details.
Asked why U.S. warplanes are still pounding the Mosul Dam area, long after U.S. officials said local Kurdish and Iraqi forces had regained control from the Islamic State forces, Kirby said, "Because ISIL keeps wanting to take it back," using an acronym for the group. "They keep threatening the dam and the facility. And as long as they pose a threat to that facility, we are going to continue to help Iraqi security forces preserve their ownership of it," he added.
Capt. Ryan Christie and 1st Lt. Kaylyn Leibrand discuss approach plans during an aerial refueling mission over northern Iraq on Aug. 21, 2014. The crew provides fuel to U.S. fighter and reconnaissance aircraft that are conducting operations over Iraq.
The Pentagon also has security forces in Baghdad and Irbil to protect American personnel and facilities, and teams of U.S. troops are in those two cities to coordinate with Iraqi and Kurdish forces and to assess the strengths and tactics of Islamic State forces. Kirby said the costs are being paid from the Pentagon's 2014 overseas contingency fund. Top Pentagon officials have said they have adequate funds for the operation through September but that requests to Congress for the next budget year might have to be reconsidered if the Iraq operations intensify further.
The White House also is considering whether to extend the military campaign to include Islamic State targets inside Syria, but President Barack Obama said Thursday there was no immediate strategy to do that and played down expectations that it would happen immediately. In a show of support for Iraq's fledgling government, Vice President Joe Biden called Iraq's premier-designate, Haider al-Abadi, on Friday and told him that political progress in Iraq has played a key role in rallying global support for Iraq's fight against the Islamic State militants. The White House said the two leaders discussed security cooperation between the U.S. and Iraq as well as the need to quickly form a government inclusive of Iraq's various sectarian groups.
Pentagon Iraq operations cost 560 million so far - U.S. - Stripes
Rear Admiral John Kirby said Friday the cost in Iraq has increased as activities have intensified since they started in mid-June. The news comes a day after President Barack Obama downplayed the possibility of adding U.S. airstrikes against Islamic extremists in Syria, but added the administration is still working on a comprehensive plan to deal with the terrorist group. Kirby says the military is in the process of drawing up options for the president to potentially order strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria as they have done in Iraq. "The Syria component is relatively new. We continue to refine and work on options - that's our job, but that doesn't mean that while you have planners doing that at a low level, that you're ready at a high level to sit down and examine them in great detail," he said. "And we just aren't there yet as an interagency team."
Smoke rises during airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants at the Mosul Dam outside Mosul, Iraq
The U.S. has conducted more than 100 airstrikes in Iraq, most of them around the Mosul Dam facilities. U.S. air strikes helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake the facilities earlier this month, and Kirby says the U.S. will continue strikes as long as Islamic State militants keep trying to threaten the facilities. Calls have mounted for greater U.S. intervention as extremist militants continue a campaign that U.N. officials have said amounts to ethnic and religious cleansing. The group has released bloody execution videos, including one showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley. It has threatened to carry out more beheadings if the U.S. does not stop its airstrikes in Iraq.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon on Friday again expressed outrage at the group's "brutal killings of civilians." Ban said whole communities that had lived for generations in northern Iraq are being force to flee or face death just for their religious beliefs. Syria said this week it would welcome U.S. and British help in fighting the militants, but only in coordination with Damascus. It says a unilateral U.S. attack would violate its airspace and could lead to an attempt to shoot down American warplanes. U.S. officials say they would not first consult Syria, saying President Bashar al-Assad has lost the authority to lead.
Pentagon Iraq Operations Cost 7.5 Million Daily
